Converting knowledge from PHP4 to PHP5 - Easy?!

Lars

Hello!
I have a question...
I am a PHP beginner. I have a really great book for beginners about
PHP 4, where everything is clear, so I would like to continue to learn
PHP with this book. But PHP 5 is out, and there's already 3 versions
of it. So I am afraid, that while I'll learn PHP 4, PHP 5 will take
its' place (and it will). So my question is: are there any CORE
differences in the versions, or it's prefectly OK to learn the basics
of the language with the PHP4 book? If so, then would it be simple for
me to convert my knowledge to PHP5? Or I'll need to read a whole book
on PHP5 in order to convert?
Thanks in advance!
P.S. The book is Wrox, Beginning PHP4

Roger_Ramjet

No problem. PHP5 builds on and extends PHP4 so your knowledge will still be valid and current. The main diff is the addition of full Object support in 5. Language syntax etc are not changed.

rehfeld

yeah youll be fine. php5 isnt much different at all. it adds some new functions, and has better support for objects. thats most of the differences aside from some slight default configuration setting changes.

i think people get hung up more on the differences between the very early 4.x versions and the current 4.x versions that you will get hung up on going from a current 4.x to 5

that and php5 still wont be the norm for quite a while. its been out for a while now but very few hosts have adopted it yet. even though its very backwards compatible, there are some changes that could break code written for older versions of php, and no host in thier right mind wants to deal w/ a ton of customers complaining that thier site is broken or acting funny all of a sudden.